New Mole Trap - First Score

Just curious in adding this new (to me) mole trap to my arsenal. I caught my first mole with it yesterday. The Putange is a 300 year old trap originating in France and is the forerunner, I assume, to the No-Mol (top pic). It does require a setting tool and is quite a bit more powerful than the self-setting No-Mol. This trap was purchased through a UK supplier.

My go-to trap in sandy soils is the OOS followed by the Talpex, both scissor traps used on surface/foraging runs. I use the Trapline mole trap in deeper runs and always upside down. Just a SWAG, but the success of using the Trapline mole trap upside down, success with the No-Mol and now the Putange, might be from the mole NOT encountering/avoiding that piece of metal on the bottom of his run, before it's too late! In my sandy soils, no matter how correctly I bed the Trapline trap in the conventional manner, the frustrating "DIG UNDERS" will happen! I don't even foresee this trap overtaking my top two, just thought I'd try something different and have it in my toolbox for when the situation arises.

What do the new traps cost? How about the setter?

I bought the minimum amount of 10 traps with triggers just to try them out from ukputangesupplie.co.uk for $26.77 (28.50 GBP). The setting pliers (Key) cost $6.40 (5.50 GBP) if you buy them with the traps. The kicker is the shipping/handling fees of $20.95 (18 GBP) - OUCH!!! I used PayPal to pay for them and they'll charge you a small fee for the currency exchange.

If you're interested in these type of traps, you might also take a look at the new Putange-type trap manufactured and sold by theflatpack.co.uk. Their traps come with stainless steel triggers. They are a highly reputable UK company.

Do you have to tie the trigger to the trap. The No-mole work ok but they are so long, it take a larger hole to set them.

The trigger is the weak part on the no mol. I've had new traps dry fire and send the trigger flying.

Yes, the trigger should be tied to the eye of the trap. It prevents losing it in the tunnel. More importantly, where you tie the trigger helps with insertion of the trap in the tunnel without setting the trap off. Any of Clive Kenyon's videos on YouTube (i.e. "Putanges - Vive LaDifference") can better explain the tips and techniques in using this trap that's been around for 300 years.

This trap does require a larger tunnel prep for my puny Texas mole (vs. the Trapline mole trap) but is similar in size to the No-Mol as seen in my pic. This trap originated in France and meant for the much larger European mole found in the UK also. Trigger placement along the prongs would allow the use of this trap for the different size subspecies of moles found in the USA I would think.

Steve Albano's will far surpass it !

Yes LT, I'm liking them more and more, the key is to examine the run and adjust it as needed, sometimes it takes a lil more time, usually roots are the problem, the ones you dont see, I give credit to Bob Jameson for reinforcing that, I still have and use the out of sights, but its nice to walk 200 yards with less weight, I dont see a lot of comments on gopher hawks, they are spendy, they have made my life easier on a lot of jobs, and yes, each one has payed for itself 10 times over, they work well on feeding grounds, You can direct them at an angle, under concrete walkways, you do have to dig up the kill, I can think of worse things, another thing I like about gopher hawks, you can glass 200 yards away, if you dont see yellow.....

Also, steves traps work well in the area around trees with roots, We always try to wait until they get out and away in the lawn for easier pickings, Ive been guilty myself, many times they have won that waiting game, when using steves traps, carry a pair of hand pruners(a pruning saw doesnt hurt) and an aluminum ice cream scoop, around those trees, you are going to cut your way in on a good run, You will know what I mean when you do it

Most of my moles are the townsend, they are bigger than the pocket gophers we have around here (by weight) I had to move up in size to steves gopher size, the adults are always a chest catch, the smaller mole size works for the pacific or coast mole, In the beginning using the mole size, I managed to kill 2 townsends and lost 15, the 2 I caught were held by a a tuft of skin, one of them dug through the tunnel and straight up above ground and died there, My job is to kill them quickly, so obviously, I dont like prolonged, Just saying, if you have big tunnels, set big traps, if you have small tunnels, set small traps

Pretty much